Basque Country and Huesca Trip: Day 3

Monday August 17th,

We spent the day in San Sebastian sightseeing. One of the nice things about San Sebastian is that it's a small enough that you can get almost anywhere by foot. We walked along playa de la Concha until we reached the other side of the city, the old quarters at the foot of Monte Urgull. First we went to the aquarium. The Aquarium Donostia/San Sebastian is worth a visit if you are traveling with kids, it's definitely better and also more reasonable than the Barcelona aquarium in our opinion.

After visiting the aquarium we walked through the old quarters and sampled about two dozen different pintxos. Most of the restaurants in the area were very crowded, so Bob and I decided to divide and conquer because there was no way we could all find a place to sit in any restaurant. I took Ciara and Rylan and we went to one bar and picked out about a dozen different pintxos, it was so much fun and very reasonable at 2€ a pintxo. Bob took Nathan and Cole and hit a different bar and did the same. Then we met up in a park to try all of our different pintxos. So delicious!

This is what a typical pinxto bar in San Sebastian looks like.

After lunch, we walked back across to the other side of the Bahia de la Concha to Monte Igeldo. It was a hot and sunny day. Here is where I think I made a grave error. We packed up the remaining pintxos and carried them with us. I didn't want to waste any food. Of course the pintxos are made with fish, seafood, eggs, cheese and other ingredients that should not sit out for too long. The problem is that you are never sure how long a pintxo has been sitting out before you buy it, and so you should eat them immediately or refrigerate them. I think that we all might have consumed some pintxos that we shouldn't have.

There is a small amusement park at the top of Monte Igeldo. We took the funicular to the top. There are no extreme rides, but it was fun enough to entertain our kids for a couple of hours and you get an amazing view of the bay and city from on top of the hill.

Nathan and I started to feel sick in the evening and we both had a really rough night. No one else got sick that evening but everyone suffered from some minor stomach problems during the rest of our trip. Fortunately we didn't have any physical activities scheduled for the following day :)